Trump’s Long Trail of Litigation

The candidate and his companies have filed a multitude of lawsuits over the years

When Donald Trump thought planes were flying too close to one of his luxury South Florida resorts, he sued Palm Beach County for $100 million in an effort to change the flight path.

When a series of concerts at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City didn’t come off as he wanted, the real-estate magnate filed a lawsuit alleging, among other things, that the band Earth, Wind & Fire wasn’t A-list talent. He sued a Miss USA contestant for disparaging the beauty pageant on social media and elsewhere. He sued one of his own law firms for using his name in its marketing.

Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, has faced hundreds of lawsuits during his long business career. A Wall Street Journal analysis of federal and state court filings shows that he and his companies also have filed a multitude of lawsuits against others when things haven’t gone their way—or to help them get what they want.

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... The Republican Party has long argued that excessive litigation in the U.S. increases the costs of goods and services and limits job creation. Republican leaders have pushed, in particular, for medical-malpractice changes, to reduce fraud in the asbestos-claims process and to cut down on what they see as frivolous litigation in general.

Mr. Trump’s political opponents have cited his pattern of litigiousness to buttress their contention that he isn’t a true conservative.

“Trump clearly has an affinity for filing lawsuits, partly because he owns a lot of businesses,” said James Copland, director of legal policy at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank that is seeking to overhaul the legal system. Most troubling, he said, is “where he is using litigation as a bullying tactic” against individuals. ...